Choosing a pest resolution service

The following are recommended questions to ask any service before hiring them to remove nuisance wildlife. The answers provided here would indicate a humane service.

1. Can you offer a long term solution to my situation?

A high quality service should be able to provide you with not only the removal of the problem animal but ways to prevent future situations.

2. What do you do if there are babies present?

Babies should never be walled up or left behind. The service should have a plan to safely retrieve the babies from the area.

3. Do you reunite infants with their mothers?

Most often babies should be placed near the closed entrance for the mother to find and move to a new location. They should be provided with a gentle heat source and be checked on to ensure the mother had retrieved them. The mother should also be given ample time to facilitate the retrieval of her babies.

4. What does the service do if the mother has not come to retrieve her babies?

They should offer to bring the infants to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator or facility. You can always offer to bring them yourself as insurance they make it there.

5. How do you ensure no orphans are left behind?

Steps should be taken to thoroughly check the area before repairing the entrance site.

6. If an animal must be trapped, what do you do with it?

Relocation of trapped animals is strongly not recommended. All animals should be released into their home territory (this should not pose any problems given a long term solution to your site has been implemented). Animals should not be euthanized unless for a public health concern or the situation legally requires it.

7. How do you make sure animals are treated humanely?

Snares, glue traps or other trapping devices in disrepair should never be used. Live traps should be placed in areas to ensure comfort and safety for the animal. For example, traps should not be placed in areas where there will be direct sunlight for many hours — this could result in heat stroke and possibly death for the trapped animal. Infants should be handled gently and provided a safe spot until the mother returns for them. It should not be assumed the mother returns for her young, they must be checked on.

8. How often are traps checked? If you report an animal in a trap, how quickly will the service respond?

Traps should be checked a minimum of every 12 hours. Animals become very frightened and stressed while in a trap and many will injure themselves trying to escape.